Rio Olympic Games 2016 - Mixed results for local sailors

11-August-2016

Seychellois sailors competing at the Rio Olympics Games were in action on Tuesday night in the Marina de Glória where Rodney Govinden, Allan Julie and Jean-Marc Gardette all tackled the Brazilian waters.

Record Seychelles Olympics Games appearance setter Allan Julie was in action for the first time in the Finn class and in his very first race he was ranked 23rd, with Argentine Facundo Olezza claiming first place. Second place went to Alican Kaynar of Turkey, while Slovenia’s Vasilij Zbogar was third.

In race two, Julie managed a 17th place finish to move to 20th place in the overall standings with 40 points out of 23 sailors.

In this race, it was Zbogar who claimed first place, with Denmark’s Jonas Høgh-Christensen taking second position while Great Britain’s Gilles Scott was third.

The overall standings is led by Zbogar with 4 points, followed by Kaynar with 7 points and Olezza is third with 10 points.

In the Laser standard class, Rodney Govinden was in action for a second day and competed in races 3 and 4. Race three was disappointing for Govinden as he failed to finish it as Cypriot Pavlos Kontides crossed the finish line first. Australia’s Tom Burton was second and Australian Juan Ignacio Maegli third.

There was better luck for Govinden in the fourth race, this time he did finish the race, ranking 37th out of 45 sailors.

First place went to Argentina Julio Alsogaray, with Kristian Ruth of Norway second and South Korea’s Ha Jee-Min third.

With four of the 10 races completed, Govinden finds himself one place above last with 123 points, with last place currently occupied by Angola’s Manuel Lelo with 132 points.

Alsogaray is currently the overall leader with 7 points, followed in second place by Tonci Stipanović (13 points) and Sam Meech of New Zealand is third (14 points).

Windsurfer Jean-Marc Gardette was also in action on Tuesday when he competed in three races. In race four, Gardette finished in 31st place out of 36 competitors. Nick Dempsey of Great Britain was the winner, while Poland’s Piotr Myszka and Brazil’s Ricardo Santos were second and third respectively.

Gardette improved to a 23rd place finish in race five and this time it was Holland’s Dorian van Rijsselberghe who claimed victory. Myszka was again second in the race and Pierre Le Coq of France claimed third place.

The final race of the day was race 6 and here Gardette could only finish in 32nd place, with Dorian van Rijsselberghe again winning. Great Britain’s Dempsey claimed second place, while third place went to France’s Le Coq.

After six races, Gardette lies in the 32nd spot in the overall standings with 153 points. Dempsey is the current leader with 6.8 points, followed by Van Rijsselberghe with 10 points and in third place is Myszka with 16 points.

Other Seychellois in action at the Olympic Games are judoka Dominic Dugasse, who was expected to fight on the mat in the -100kg weight class yesterday, while male swimmer Adam Viktora was to compete in the 50m freestyle race last night.

In track and field athletics, young Ned Azemia is slated to run the 400m hurdles on Monday August 15 and female high jumper Lissa Labiche will compete on Thursday August 18, the last Seychellois athlete expected to be in action at this year’s games.

Boxer Andrique Allisop who suffered a cut above his left eye and lost 0-3 to Irish Oliver David Joyce on Sunday in the light weight (60kg) class is already out of the competition. Female swimmer Alexus Laird did not qualify for the semifinals of the 100m backstroke after clocking 1 minute 03.33 seconds (1:03.33) to finish third in her heat and 27th overall out of 34 swimmers.

As for male weightlifter Rick Confiance, he finished 13th and last with an Olympic total of 232kg (105kg in snatch and 127kg in clean & jerk) in the 62kg weight category won by Colombian Oscar Albeiro Figuerora with 318kg (142kg in snatch and 176kg in clean & jerk).